Ida Wells-Barnett was born in 1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi to slave par-ents and in her sixty-nine years of life, accomplished a great many things.

Remembered as the legendary anti-lynching crusader and militant journalist, she became a teacher at the young age of fourteen to support her siblings after the loss of their parents to the yellow fever epidemic. With the termination of her em-ployment at the public school, Wells-Barnett began her journalism career, eventually, in 1892, becoming editor and partial owner of the Memphis Free Speech. This was also the year three of her male friends were lynch, which lead to her meticulous in-vestigation and reporting of the incidents. It was this determined inquisition that caused her to become "the person most responsible at the turn of the century for enlightening the nation and the world about the powerful connection between lynch-ing, patriarchy, racism, and cultural notions of white womanhood and black sexuality" (Word of Fire, 1995, 69).

Ida B. Wells Barnett

English: , Chicago, Illinois]]

English: Ida Wells House tribute Category:Images o...

In 1893 Chicago, Wells-Barnett founded the Alpha Suffrage Club, the first black woman suffrage group. The goal she wished to accomplish by educating the world about lynching was to make it a Federal crime, where the Fed-eral government, not the state government, would be responsible for punishing those "vigilantes" hunting down helpless African Americans and murdering them in heinous ways (Words of Fire, 1995).

Ida Wells-Barnett's speech Lynch Laws in America is a well-written, com-posed, sophisticated attack at those participating in lynching. Her position regarding lynching is made clear throughout her speech: she is against it. And she criticizes the "unwritten law" of lynching in a manner that reflects her educated background.

Wells-Barnett's word usage was perfect in that she wrote her speech in such a way that she shows her intelligence, yet does...

More African Studies - History essays:

Between the 1900's and 1940's there was a lot of things going on. There was lots of violence and segregation against the innocent blacks. The segregation that was happening was not just by habit, but it was an actual law. Riots and Lynching were very common and happened all the time. Many of the ...

... the defense of Jerusalem in the War of Independence (1947-1949). Rabin then rose through the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces, becoming chief of staff in 1964. After the Six-Day War (1967) he retired from the military and served as ambassador to the United States ...

... brother would be sold and you would not be able to see them anymore. A horrible experience! As the northern states were against slavery and intended to abolish it, the South wanted to split from the North and that's why the civil war started.

... the survey to complete his scientific work. With that said Banneker published his first almanac later in the year, and antislavery activists were quick to champion the accomplishment. In deed, where ever abolitionists argued that blacks deserved the same opportunities as a white man, the person ...

... the line "Some view our sable race with scornful eye" - it would be almost a hundred years before another black writer would drop the mask of convention and write openly about the African-American experience. Phillis Wheatley received her freedom and married a free ...

... February 13, 2001 INTERNET US Dept. of State Background Notes "Organizational Body: Department of State Bureau of Public Affairs Office of Public Communication - Cameroon" June 1992 US Dept. of State Background Notes "Organizational Body: Department of State Bureau of Public Affairs Office of Public ...

1 pages90Apr/20024.1

Students & Profs. say about us:

"Good news: you can turn to other's writing help. WriteWork has over 100,000 sample papers"